Comments (46)

1. Suprisingly, they also make Heelys for adults. Not suprisingly, these are also a hazard! I do wish I had a pair, though…

   posted by Susan on 11-28-2006 at 3:09 pm

2. I KNEW THOSE HEELYS WERE EVIL!!! My aunt said no… but i KNEW i was right!

   posted by Chrissie on 11-28-2006 at 3:57 pm

3. I have to disagree on one of these. I had a thingmaker when I was about 8 or so. It was the coolest toy ever! I also had a similar toy, the Vac-U-Form, which let you make plastic casts of objects, which couls be used as molds, etc. Yes, these did run a bit warm. Yes, you probably *COULD* burn yourself if you were not careful. *BUT*, back then, there was still a measure of common sense. It had handles to move the hot molds around, and made great plastic toys. I also wonder about the 3rd degree burn part. 2nd, maybe. !st, for sure. Certainly no more dangerous than a hot glue gun, or a woodburning kit.

   posted by Mark on 11-28-2006 at 4:38 pm

4. my dad brought home some lawn darts for my brother and me from a thrift shop once. it was pre-1988, though, so I suspect it was still legal then. I remember thinking they were kind of scary, but we played with them anyway. thank goodness neither of us (or the neighbor kids) have punctured body parts…

   posted by susan on 11-28-2006 at 4:43 pm

5. I don’t get the whole Lawn Dart thing. I was fairly young at the time of their hipness and the name only vaguely rings a bell. Were you sucksposed to draw a bull’s-eye on the grass and toss the darts into your front yard? And where’s the fun in that? Sounds ultra lame.

   posted by Amanda on 11-28-2006 at 8:05 pm

6. Ahh, the memories! Vac-U-Forms and Thing Makers and wood burning kits – and personal responsibility and actual parental supervision! Go back one more generation and one had toy irons and stoves and sewing machines that *really worked*! Stereotypical gender roles aside, can you imagine the lawsuits if these were available today??

   posted by Larriann on 11-29-2006 at 10:32 am

7. A couple of months ago, I was cleaning out the shed of the house we recently bought. In it were all manner of old toys. Among them I discovered a set of lawn darts! I took them out and had a bit of fun with them.

   Right up until I nearly speared my dog. For once in her life, she actually listened to me when I said “Stop!!!!”

   After that, they went into the garbage.

   posted by Anthony on 11-29-2006 at 12:45 pm

8. I own an athletic shoe store and it still amazes me that Dr. warnings don’t stop Heely PARENTS. It’s been the #1 requested Christmas gift both last year and this year from parents not kids.

   posted by Roxanne Aranda on 11-29-2006 at 7:22 pm

9. I have such fond memories of lawn darts! Ahh… the screaming and running around covering our heads, dodging the incoming missiles… :) Ok, so we had some undiagnosed (unheard of in the early 80s) ADHD children in the family…

   But we really, REALLY had fun with those lawn darts!

   posted by Lisa Bryant on 11-30-2006 at 11:09 am

10. Thingmaker rules! We used it so much that the water in the cooling pool got hot enough to burn you! I not only had the monster and bug stuff, but flower power and mini dragons too. If you get one now, it’s the lamest toy. Takes forever to cook the goop!

    posted by edie on 11-30-2006 at 2:10 pm

11. Ah; lawn darts! That was a fun game indeed. Too bad about the people getting killed and all, but is it really necessary to ban Jarts outright? Lots more people get hurt & killed on bicycles, but do they get banned?

    And, no, Amanda; the lawn darts came with two plastic tubes that formed a circle, and became the target. Far, far from lame.

    my kids & I built a set of Hillbilly Horseshoes (www.daveandyvonne.com/wp/?p=63) a while back; very reminiscent of the lawn dart thing, without the sharp points. But beware of three year olds playing!

    posted by Dave on 12-1-2006 at 12:20 am

12. My childhood had lawn darts too. Only thing is we would play these on the cement sidewalk. (Should we play on the grass or sidewalk today?) When lawn darts struck the pavement at the right angle sparks would shoot out from it. So the fear for us wasn’t about getting hit, but accidentially starting a grass fire!

    posted by Kasee on 8-14-2007 at 7:40 am

13. i have a friend who got hit in the face with a lawn dart before ’88. he’s got a big scar that runs around his eyebrow. his family won a bunch of money in a lawsuit against the manufacturer, so the lawsuit thing isn’t just a recent phenomenon.

    posted by lindsay on 8-14-2007 at 6:32 pm

14. Thank GOD I grew up in the 70′s and not today! I had a cap gun that looked like a 9mm Browning…didn’t matter because people weren’t paranoid about guns then. I would’ve found the trauma of having to wear a helmet while riding my bike much worse than getting a few stitches in the head- the former would’ve ruined myu childhood..the latter I got over in a few hours. Got bit in the ass by a dog when I was 5. Mom patched me up…no hospital or shots or lawsuits..I became great friends with the neighbors dog who had bitten me. That was life! I feel so sorry for the kids today!

    posted by Richiemagoo on 8-14-2007 at 9:19 pm

15. I have in front of me a dragon from the thingmaker set. I was lucky enough to find 2 thingmakers at one yard sale with about 30 odd dies. A month later found another thingmaker in the box with the flower dies.
    It was like a little child labor camp at the table reliving my youth. Had all 3 going at once and had to used a metal bowl full of water to cool all the die.

    posted by Landtat on 8-15-2007 at 5:06 pm

16. Everybody, and I do mean everybody, in our neighborhood had Clackers, so (relating another of what my daughter calls “Mom’s Oliver Stories”) I swiped mine from the TG&Y or White Front or Zody’s – one of those stores that don’t exist anymore, anyway – because we were poor and never got any purchased toys.

    There was also a strange thing called a Footsie, which was a plastic ring with a string on it and a bell-thingy at the end of the string. You put the ring around one ankle and then swung the bell/string bit around and hopped over it with the other foot. I didn’t have to resort to shoplifting for that one: the only girl in the neighborhood to have a real one was the spoilt rich girl on the corner (she had an entire bedroom just for her toys). The rest of us made our own, cutting rings out of the plastic lids of three-pound coffee cans, string, and something on the end, but I can’t remember what. And for the record, I haven’t used the five-finger-discount for at least 35 years, so I think the statute of limitations has probably run out on that one.

    posted by Rosemary on 8-15-2007 at 6:40 pm

17. We had an original set of Lawn Darts, along with the plastic target ring you aimed for. Of course, after about 3 minutes of aiming for the ring you got bored and just started chucking the things as high as you could and then seeing how close they came down next to you. How none of us ended up in the morgue is a mystery. I think these things are still in a box in my parents garage. My Mom never throws anything away.

    posted by Bill on 8-16-2007 at 6:59 am

18. Lawn darts were and are the most fun you could have on a lawn with your clothes on. It is a game played like horse shoes. 2 – 4 players trying to land a dart in a circle. My family has played every summer since the 70′s, without ever sustaining any injuries.

    Stupid people kill 4 kids with lawn darts and they are banned from sale – HOW MANY PEOPLE MUST BE KILLED BY HAND GUNS UNTIL THEY’RE BANNED. I guess darts needed a better lobby!!

    posted by Mike Ross on 8-16-2007 at 12:14 pm

19. Loved lawn darts. They were great for hunting squirrels. I never made any hit that target, but tried on a time or two. The comment about common sense is the key to all of these toys.

    Teach someone responsibility, and don’t provide them those who can’t handle that responsibility.

    BTW, knives, sticks, rocks all kill people too (NOT, people kill people, and those are all tools they use to do that job). Should they be banned? Do I need a license to carry a pebble around with me now? Of course, OTC drugs can kill people too, so let’s ban them as well. Let’s not start a debate over firearms. Neither side will look as intelligent as they are.

    posted by Thaylok on 8-17-2007 at 10:28 am

20. Hey, hey, no picking on Thingmaker, which is absolutely ONE OF THE GREATEST TOYS EVER.

    Sure, a few kids get burned, but it’s the price society pays for having such effin’ cool stuff.

    posted by First Toy Maker to the King on 8-17-2007 at 12:16 pm

21. Have you seen those blowdryers with the rotating barrel hairbrushes? They work pretty much like the Snacktime Cabbage Patch dolls. I don’t know about you, but I hesitate to stick my hair into any mechanical rollers. Especially when they feed into a heating element. When I was in high school my friend had a tool that “braided” your hair. In reality, all it did was twist your hair until it knotted itself into a rope like tangle.

    posted by Maggie on 8-17-2007 at 6:00 pm

22. I too had a thing maker creepy crawly set the original that was a hotplate Never hurt my self , maybe the new one with the light bulb was dangerous. by the way I had hours of fun

    posted by L.Cross on 10-10-2007 at 9:19 pm

23. I remember as a kid getting one of the Boba Fett action figures that had a spring loaded missle on his backpack that would actually fire. They ended up
    banning that one and replaced it with one that didn’t fire because some kids shot themselves in the eye with it. I so wish I had that one today.
    I also had an 18″ Shogun Warrior that would shoot missiles out of his hand. That was the raddest toy ever!

    posted by Zod on 10-11-2007 at 4:51 pm

24. How did our ancestors ever survive childhood to reach an age to reproduce? Open a pre-1900 Sears Catalog and you’ll see toy steam engines (in which you started a fire to make steam to power another toy), little iron stoves in which a fire was started for the child to cook, toy cast-iron cannons that really fired and choking risks galore. Lead paint? Ha! Our ancestors had little toy soldiers made out of solid lead.

    I’m not objecting to all of the standards which have made toys safer, but jeeze, it does seem like we overreact at times, banning anything which has a remote chance of causing harm. “Oh God, it’s been reported that two kids got their fingers stuck, and little Susie Smith got her hair pulled! Recall them all!”

    posted by bibli0phile on 10-13-2007 at 10:08 am

25. I had a set of Clackers in the early ’70s, and I would swear they were made out of glass. If you hit them together too hard, small pieces of glass would chip off. My mom & I used to wrap kitchen towels around our wrists until we got the hang of it because they would hit our wrists and leave these big bruises. Ah, yes, the good old days!

    posted by lisagd on 10-14-2007 at 3:16 pm

26. My husband actually had a lawn dart puncture his skull when he was a kid. It was just touching his brain. You can still feel the hole at the top of his head. Whenever he sees lawn darts at garage sales he will buy them and destroy them.

    posted by jacdav on 10-14-2007 at 5:04 pm

27. I had a thing maker & loved it. I burned my fingers pretty bad but it was my own fault. Also my neighbor got speared in the leg by a lawn dart.
    Ah those were the days…

    posted by Sandy on 10-15-2007 at 5:27 am

28. I had jarts-lawn darts as a kid and never was stupid enough to stand in the path of one. Did fall off my bike many times- without a helmet! Never wore my seatbelt till it was law! HOW IS IT POSSIBLE!! By the way, the new lawn darts without the point are very lame.

    posted by Kap on 10-16-2007 at 10:42 am

29. I had a Vac-U-Form also and loved it, and KNEW that the heat meant it could burn you!!

    My brother had a set that would let you cast little lead soldiers (circa 1966). You melted the little bars of lead in a ladle on a hotplate type heater that the cradle fit into. After the lead melted you poured it into the molds which someone else would hold together using two 5″ wooden handles (all items supplied). Needless to say he and a friend were casting and the lead went on the hands of the friend, luckily without lasting injury. The friend is now a doctor.

    posted by Steve on 10-22-2007 at 2:49 pm

30. Anyone remember slap bracelets? They were banned since the metal part came out and cut some kid’s wrist…

    posted by Francesca on 10-24-2007 at 3:53 pm

31. My grandmother had lawn darts, and all of my young cousins and I would go out and throw them as high as we could. They were some of my favorite toys at her place. Ahh, I miss the days when they made toys that could kill a kid.

    posted by Binglebore on 10-30-2007 at 11:20 am

32. The PEZ candy gun wasn’t the fist: M&M’s also had a gun.

    However, it was removed from the market when it occurred to parents that the vision of their child putting a gun barrel in their mouths was not a good one.

    Also, I had a Thingmaker – it was lots of fun!

    posted by Willis on 10-31-2007 at 10:08 am

33. i had a modern version of the thingmaker, except it made jewlery out of gray plastic (which i totally believed was a fancy metal material). it took forever to melt the plastic and of course living in the generation of the ADHD we would turn it on and leave it there and eventually come back. unfortunetly that time would usually be a lot longer then the 30 min it took to melt the plastic. leaving an electric hot thing by itself was probably not very smart. whoops i wish i had a thing maker

    posted by Em on 11-15-2007 at 11:26 am

34. I still have two pairs of lawn darts & use them every so often. I think the problem was more of common sense when using them. But then again, common sense gets lost in the shuffle alot. Of course, that’s also why people have jobs to determine what to outlaw to keep people safe. If only they’d kibosh the company’s ideas BEFORE they get to market. Heely’s would be a really good example. :P

    posted by Lauren on 12-8-2007 at 10:09 pm

35. I had and STILL have clackers and damn it I still play with them as well! Why didn’t someone think like me, get yourself a really good pair of safety goggles and bust as many pair as you want! I’ve broken a number of clackers over the years! The noise is therapy for me and they take me back years! I’m 45 years old, lots of things were dangerous and I lived and so did the rest of us! You just have to use some damned sense is all. Dangerous can be fixed or even removed, its STUPID you have to worry about!

    posted by Ray on 12-12-2007 at 12:27 am

36. Oh the memories! I had a flower maker with amazing plasti-goop that I made hundreds of flowers with-so much fun and no burns (that I remember). I also had multiple sets of “clackers”. I guess I was really fortunate because my mom and grandmother made them! They made them out of resin-oh the toxic fumes that filled our house! But the end results were worth it. Mom also made those giant bunches of grapes that sat on coffee tables and countless varieties of fish for the bathroom walls. Maybe the txic fumes are why I can’t remember any burns from my flower maker!

    posted by Terri on 1-13-2008 at 1:24 am

37. Anyone remember Jillions of Jewels? I loved this! I don’t remember how it worked except that it melted stuff to make jewels and the settings to put them in. . . hmmm, come to think of it, I didn’t have it for very long…. I wonder why…..

    posted by Elizabeth on 2-22-2008 at 9:43 am

38. i so remeber footsies.. not dangerous; just lame.

    posted by sarah on 6-26-2008 at 12:30 pm

39. I had a thingmaker too. Had a blast with the insect molds. Only trouble was getting the goop to get into the smaller areas like the feet and antenna. Loads of fun but never burnt myself on it.

    Also had a similar toy. You melted pieces of plastic (wax?) and poured the very hot liquid into molds of army men, tanks and jeeps. The molds weren’t to scale and everything was green, but it was fun. You could also re-melt the plastic to make different army men or equipment.

    Lawn darts were fun. Didn’t know anyone who got hurt by them though. Interestingly enough, the F-16 in the Air Force is called a ‘lawn dart’ by it’s crews – probably because if you loose the single engine, it magically transforms from a multi-million dollar aircraft into a rather expensive lawn dart.

    Thanks for the walk down memory lane!

    posted by Lee on 8-13-2008 at 1:58 pm

40. What about the Kenner EZ bake oven?? Burned myself on that a few times.

    posted by Vickey on 8-20-2008 at 4:58 pm

41. I was trying to explain Lawn Jarts here in Poland, and parents from all nations were like “What?! You gave your kids flying metal spears and let them loose in the yard? Why not just give them guns? Oh wait, you already do that!”

    For the record, I did my best to hold up the American side in that debate.

    Was that hot-plastic flower thing called Pretty Petals by Whiting? My older sister had one–until she burnt herself so badly the ER doctor said to get rid of it. The new version of that toy is sissy stuff. Target sells it.

    I got the Sunshine Family dolls and treehouse and a Spirograph. DD got the EZ bake oven and Pretty Petals.

    And scars. Scars are cool.

    posted by Bookratt on 8-26-2008 at 1:39 am

42. Re: Lee post of 8/13/08 – I am looking for that hot wax mold toy! Do you remember the name of it? or who made it? I’ve been searching for a while and can’t find any info on it….I want one!
    Contact me directly if you like.
    mgoody@lelwd.com
    Thanks,
    Mike

    posted by Mike on 9-18-2008 at 7:43 am

43. Creepy Crawlers Thing Maker!!! OMG! I had HOURS of fun. Never burned myself but had to change that water in the tray lots of times, I even melted it a bit once cuz I wasn’t paying attention of the evaporation.
    I was selling my crawlers at school, til the kids didn’t have lunch money, and I got “busted”. I had a packed lunch. (I didn’t know where their money was comming from.) All I knew was I could buy more plastic goop to support my habit over the Thing Maker hot plate!) I even made both of my Grandpa’s fishing lures.
    I even had a Batman mold, from the 60′s TV show.

    We had Jarts, and just knew better then get “stupid” with them…besides if we didn’t kill ourselves, Dad would have if he got wind of it. They were alot of fun. Horseshoes were just too heavy to toss and the stakes were too far apart for youngsters.

    I had that thing the you put on your ankle and jumped over. The grand kids would love to have those. I think I’ll take the suggestion and make a few for them. Let them know that you don’t always have to run to the store for “fun”.

    Shall we talk about a good ole’ Gilbert Chemistry set?!? lol!

    posted by Kim on 12-12-2008 at 4:25 am

44. I WANTED lawn darts soooo bad! Still do! I had no problem playing with lawn darts as a kid. But then I wasn’t an idiot. I’m glad I grew up in the 70′s and 80′s before common sense and taking responsiblity for your actions disappeared completely. And the ‘Safety Nazi’s’ came and put an end to all the crazy fun! I remember the days when a good sharp pocket knife and a good multi-pump BB-gun were the best toys a boy could have! (And still are. Depending on how good a job the parents did raising their kids.) Besides the Lego’s, Hot Wheels or a Tyco race car set or a Train!

    posted by Darkstar on 12-18-2008 at 9:28 pm

45. they still amke lawn darts
    but instead of a metal end the end is a little fabric bag usually with a design on it filled with those styrofoam beads

    posted by james on 1-27-2009 at 5:05 pm

46. I think they remade that Cabbage Patch kid because I had one that ate in the 90′s.

    posted by Jenn the Hen on 8-29-2009 at 3:18 pm

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